Dylan: changin' with the times

"What's interesting is he's probably doing the same number of projects he's always done, but they're not all records," continues Mr. Flanagan. "He seems as if he's stretching his literary talent into other forms and not feeling confined. He's Bob Dylan every day; the rest of us are fascinated by him.''

That would explain why the themed playlists of his weekly radio show on XM Satellite Radio have been picked over by Dylan enthusiasts. (Who'd have guessed that Dylan listens to a hip-hop artist such as LL Cool J?)

"He's pretty secretive about what his next move is, but when we talked to management about [starting] a radio show, the timing was perfect, with the book and movie," says Lee Abrams, chief creative officer at XM. "It seems like it might be a time in his career he wants to step out a little bit.... Maybe he wants to explain himself in a 'Bob Dylan' mysterious way – come out of the Bob Dylan closet in a little way, which he's done in the movie and book, and a little bit in the radio show by showing his true musical taste.''

Dylan, who declined to comment for this article, remains, as ever, an enigma. (Three years ago, he called himself "a 62-year-old Jewish atheist.'') But he's more open than he's ever been about his past, even opening himself to interviews for Scorsese.

"You have Bob talking in the documentary, and his powers of reportage and observation are enormous," enthuses Nigel Sinclair, a producer on the film. "He's a great storyteller. You see someone who's aware in a great way, conscious of the journey he's had, the journey home."

Dylan's new album, "Modern Times," has once again stirred a flurry of interest.

"He's aiming very high, to be Shakespeare, the highest he can be," says Mr. Wilentz, who penned the liner notes for the Dylan 1964 installment of the bootleg series. (He's also the official historian at bobdylan.com.) "Now, his peers are wondering, 'How do you grow old in rock 'n' roll?' and Dylan had the clarity and courage to say, 'Getting old is a subject, too.' ''

Mr. Sinclair calls Dylan's three most recent albums focused, powerful, fresh, and different.

" 'Modern Times' is a new record that's equally innovative," says Sinclair. "[It's] not a record by a person revisiting his legacy in making that record now. He's very musically alive."

Bob Dylan – Modern Times (Columbia): At 65 – and on his 32nd studio album – Bob Dylan is mostly somber and serious, working in the shuffling blues-rock mode he's employed for some time. The 10 songs on "Modern Times" chug along at modest mid-tempos, many lyrics dealing with love's vagaries. There isn't the drama, heft, or hookiness of prime-time Dylan – no rousing anthems or major statements. These are like back-porch meditations, as played by Dylan and his touring band. He can be sly – "I keep recycling the same old thoughts" in "When the Deal Goes Down" – and funny, as in a weird shout-out to Alicia Keys in "Thunder on the Mountain." The soft, elegiac "Workingman's Blues #2'' is the centerpiece, with Dylan musing "sleep is my contemporary death'' as the music meanders past gently and, later, "I say it, so it must be so.'' "Modern Times'' is calm and likable, but it doesn't match Dylan's last two CDs. Grade: B

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